BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) -Jose Canseco has spoken, but is anyone listening anymore?
The former slugger has gained credibility in some circles after naming names and detailing steroid use around professional baseball in two tell-all memoirs.
But on Thursday, after Major League Baseball suspended Dodgers slugger Manny Ramirez for 50 games for violating its drug policies, Canseco spoke to a near-empty ballroom at the Four Seasons Hotel.
Only one reporter from The Associated Press, Canseco’s lawyer, a photographer and four camera crews attended the news conference. All but two of the 100 seats were empty.
It was probably fitting that Canseco was dressed all in black, given the news about Ramirez was the latest public relations mess for baseball officials. Canseco was visibly upset about being forced out of the game and can’t believe other players aren’t meeting a similar fate.
et a fine,” Canseco said. “I didn’t get the chance these players are getting these days.”
Despite that animosity, Canseco said players have endured enough embarrassment over the steroid scandal and now it’s time to investigate what role MLB brass and the players’ association played in it.
“It’s a complete conspiracy,” Canseco said. “The truth has to come out.”
Canseco said that MLB officials, the players’ union and others profited from the success of players who used steroids, knew what was going on, and have failed to do anything about it.
Canseco added he wasn’t surprised that Ramirez tested positive and maintains other players of his era juiced up.
“Any MVP or any great player before the pre-testing era is probably suspect in the sense of using steroids or acquiring steroids,” he said.
Ramirez’s ban was based on evidence he used human chorionic gonadotropin, a female fertility drug, a person familiar with the suspension told The Associated Press, speaking on condition of anonymity because those details were not released.
Asked why the Dodgers star might’ve taken it, Canseco offered a general explanation.
“It could be that a player used it because he used steroids and went cold-turkey and needed HCG to get his (testosterone) levels back to normal,” Canseco told The Associated Press by telephone earlier in the day.
urkey. I had to go to a doctor to get it and get my levels back.”
Last November, the former AL MVP pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor of trying to bring HCG across the Mexican border into the United States illegally. He was sentenced to 12 months of unsupervised probation.
Baseball added HCG to its list of banned substances last year.
Canseco’s attorney Dennis Holahan said the time of shaming his client should come to an end. But Canseco knows it will be difficult to overcome the perception by the public and his former employer.
“I am wearing and I will wear the scarlet letter until I die,” he said. “I have paid the price beyond any other player has actually paid.”
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AP Baseball Writer Ronald Blum in New York and AP Sports Writer Dan Gelston in Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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